Installations of low power terminal assemblies are well known in the art. Terminal assemblies, such as the prior art assembly illustrated in FIG. 1, typically include one or more current-conducting pins 5 that are secured to a metallic body 7 by a glass-to-metal seal 9. The body 7 is installed and sealed into an opening 6 defined in a wall 3.
A durable seal between the body and the opening in the wall is desirable to maintain the integrity of the feed-through under elevated stress and temperature conditions without causing breakage between the body and the opening in the wall. It is also important to provide an optimum air path between adjacent portions of the conductive pin and the opening in the wall in order for the conductive pin to be operably coupled with an external device.
On occasion, the conductive pins of prior art terminal assemblies, such as the one illustrated in FIG. 1, become contaminated during installation, when the body 7 is soldered or otherwise secured into the opening 6 of the wall 3. Specifically, as solder fills the opening 6 between the body 7 and the wall 3, an overflow of solder or other joining process material may leave the opening 6 in an arc-like manner coming in contact with portions of the conductive pin 5.
There is a need for a terminal assembly that eliminates the potential of contamination of the conductive pin during installation.